"THE NEW YORK PROJECT , 1997 - 2003 "


100 small sculptures in bronze
from 18 to 24 cm
Edition of 6

100 monumental outdoor sculptures in concrete or IPC (isotroph phospheric cement)
180 - 240 cm
Edition of 3

N.B.It is possible to realize also the landscape sculptures in bronze

why the story
A giant city, skyscrapers all around - men seem so miniscule next to them. People all over the place: tall, short, fat and skinny, black, white, yellow, religious and and atheist, poor and rich, young and old, everything mingled, part of the whole.

Walking through the streets is like walking through a movie in fast forward. Silhouettes when moving at fast pace, swiftly turning one's head, throttling the eye-lids to near-blind focus.

When suddenly stopping to observe or follow them, they turn into real people, friendly or distant, open or introvert, good-looking or ugly, gay or straight, tourists or professionals, each with their own life, their own story, pleasures and tragedies, passions, talents and vices, all part of the big bad city… One feels like a spectator and participant at the same time.

A window on the 47th floor, between Columbus Circle and Lincoln Center, overlooking Central Park, surrounded by the Manhattan skyline at eye level. Downstairs people form flowing masses in the streets, they all look the same from up here, their colors mix with those of the streets and buildings, they become one with them. The image is always the same and still it changes constantly. They where here yesterday, they're here now and will be here again tomorrow. Are they the same or are they different ones?

the first idea
one square meter of human sculpture

the work
wet clay, the window on the 47th floor, over and again observing, following the people downstairs…on the streets, a short moment a specific movement, a pace, a position, that catches the eye, and stays transfixed in the sculpting clay. No studies, no pictures; just the instant impression counts. The masses, the city, the whole environment is ever present.

the installation
one hundred impressions in clay are cast into bronze, finished, signed and numbered.
One hundred black and white pictures from one hundred individual sculptures.

the exhibition
a journey with people and the city.

The elements are:
- one or more sets of the one hundres small sculptures
- b/w digital photos in various formats
- a multimedia environment
- an with each show increasing number of larger-than- life-size sculptures in concrete, blown-up from the original small series.

The larger-than- life-size sculptures should in any event be positioned at the entrance of the exhibition, seemingly as a human barrier to be circumvented in order to penetrate into the exhibition rooms, reverseley son on exiting too, the city itself creating its own kind of exhibition space. The concrete as casting material for the sculptures represents a link to the cities we have created around ourselves.
The walls are surrounding us with hundreds of single pictures and huge digital photographs.

the future
In the end all large sculptures will be in a diaspora in various cities around the world, in the streets, squares, museums and buildings, urbanoids interacting with the people living and working around them.